The Other Olympians

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The story of the early athletes and Olympic bureaucrats who lit the flame for today's culture wars. In December 1935, Zdenek Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women's sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. And in the wake of their transitions, what could have been a push toward equality became instead, through a confluence of bureaucracy, war, and sheer happenstance, the exact opposite- the now all-too-familiar panic around trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming athletes. In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era. With dogged research and cinematic flair, Waters also tracks how International Olympic Committee members ignored Nazi Germany's atrocities in order to pull off the Berlin Games, a partnership that ultimately influenced the IOC's nearly century-long obsession with surveilling and cataloging gender. Immersive and revelatory, The Other Olympians is a groundbreaking, hidden-in-the-archives marvel, an inspiring call for equality, and an essential contribution toward understanding the contemporary culture wars over gender in sports.

Reviews

The Other Olympians is a stunning addition to queer and sports history, an inspiring and cinematic account of perseverance, identity, activism, and, ultimately, joy. Michael Waters has achieved what all great historians aim to do: changing our understanding of the present by illuminating the hidden stories of the past. * Eric Cervini, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America *
Deeply researched and evocatively written, Michael Waters's The Other Olympians impressively interweaves the lives of early 20th century trans and gender non-conforming athletes with the history of the modern Olympics, the rise of European mid-century fascism, and our complicated - and often nonsensical - attempts to define and regulate sex, gender, and the multitudinous human body. The Other Olympians adds crucial prehistory to understanding our modern thinking on gender and athletics. * Hugh Ryan, author of When Brooklyn Was Queer *
A riveting and important work of history. Michael Waters performs an Olympian act of storytelling, using the stories of these extraordinary athletes to explore in brilliant detail the struggle for understanding and equality. The Other Olympians is a book of great originality, deeply researched and beautifully written. * Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life *
Michael Waters has written a book that should revolutionize the way we think about sport and gender. By examining the history of the gender-diverse athletes who have always competedas well as the systems that have tried to limit their participationThe Other Olympians is as relevant today as it would have been during the events it chronicles nearly a century ago. In showing us our history, we will perhaps not be doomed to repeat it. The Other Olympians is a warning; let us heed it. * Frankie de la Cretaz, co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League *
The 1936 Berlin Olympics take center stage in Michaels Waters fascinating, erudite account of the lives and careers of acclaimed athletes who challenged the conventional boundaries between men and women, decades before transgender became a flashpoint in contemporary social struggles. He charts a clash of ideologies over how to regulate gender in international womens sporting events -- and beyond -- that still animates headlines today. * Susan Stryker, Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution *

Author Bio

Michael Waters has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Wired, Slate, and Vox, among other publications. He was the 2021-2022 New York Public Library Martin Duberman Visiting Scholar in LGBTQ studies and lives in Brooklyn, New York.